We are drop outs

When we moved to our current house last year we knew that the school we were zoned for was not one we would send our kids too. Most people wouldn't buy a house under those circumstances but anyone who has seen our house...well it was a deal we just could not pass up. Especially when there were other options to avoid that particular school. We loved her old school which wasn't that far away but because we were out of zone we had to provide transportation back and forth. With my daycare hours it was just impossible.

One option was going to a private school. Very costly just paying for tuition, then you have uniforms and everything else. This honestly would be our last resort just because of finances and also transportation. Depending on the school we may have had to still provide transportation. There are a couple really good schools around here though so we couldn't rule it out entirely.

Another option was the magnet program but it's a lottery system so there is no gurantee of getting in. Monkey ended up getting wait listed at 2 of them and since getting in at that point depends on no shows and drop outs there is also no gurantee of getting in. Great program though and we wouldn't have to worry about transportation because the city buses the kids regardless of where they live.

And finally our last option was homeschooling. Everyone knows this is the route we ended up taking and not for a minute do I regret it because it showed me a few things which I'll explain in a minute. With homeschooling we had so much flexibility, I could work schooling around our schedules and vacations rather than the other way around. We could spend more time on things she needed help with and go right through the things she didn't.

Monkey did very well with the lessons and taking the time to learn things as I knew she would. Heck I even learned a few things along the way. What I didn't account for was how much she would miss actually going to school. Having been in public school for 3 years now she was very aware of what she was missing. Adding to that her walking with my assistant to put her daughter on the boss every day and well...I ended up with a crying 7yr old wanting to go back to school.

So last week I started making calls and went up to the school board to see what our options were. Our request to go back to her original school was denied because it is "full" so that was a no go. So we re-explored the magnet program. At one school she was still #33 on the list. At the other....they had a spot for her!

Well, they HAD a spot for her. Turns out the principle had tried to call us the week before school started to let us know the spot was open. Apparently though the old school never updated it with in the computer systems that our phone number had changed and the principle never actually saw our application for the program which had the new number on it. So obviously we never got the call. Thankfully though since it was right at the beginning of the year, they got busy with all those first few weeks of school stuff - etc, they never filled her spot with someone else. So the spot is still Monkey's. She gets to start next week.

When I told her that she was going to get to go back to regular school the child literally jumped up and down. Anyone ever seen a kid that excited to go back?? Of course I'm fully expecting it to wear off at least a bit after a couple weeks but we'll see. The program at the school she is going to focuses on international languages which Monkey has been trying to learn Spanish lately. Of course that is based on the various learnign toys we have that speak in English and Spanish so it's kinda interesting what she has learned.

So now at this point I get to officially say we are homeschool drop outs. But in a good way! This week I'll get to go school shopping with her to get what she needs. And since we started our schooling back in July she has already covered everything that they are doing up to now in class so she won't be behind. It's going to be wierd not having my oldest around during the day now but it will be ok knowing she is happy too.